Boomerang Diy

Boomerang Throwing is Great Sport

The detailed description of how to make and apply a boomerang in "Silent Hunt".

Away it goes, skimming the surface of the ground for a distance of 250 ft. or more, and then, rising like a bird in its flight, it wheels and comes hurtling back to the thrower, landing almost at his feet. Believe it or not, there's real fall sport in boomerang throwing.

The boomerang comes from Australia, where the flat country makes an ideal arena for their manipulation. The little brown Bushmen of the Arunta tribe, who depend on them almost entirely for hunt and defense, make no less than twenty different forms of boomerangs, ranging all the way from a 14-in. bird stick to the heavy 4-ft. war boomerang.

Make Boomerang

Most Australian boomerangs are in the shape of an obtuse triangle, flat on one side and convex on the other, measuring about 2 ½ ft. from tip to tip. The brown men use acacia wood in their construction, but your homemade one can be fashioned quite nicely from a piece of hickory or second-growth ash, 5/16 in. thick.

In making your own boomerang, the first step is to map out the paper pattern. Do this on a sheet of paper, 29 ½ by 12 ¾ in. The paper plan is shown in Fig. 2.

Only a rough adherence to the plan is necessary in order to insure a successful boomerang. Note that the width of the boomerang arms, near the angle, is 2 in., while they narrow down to 1 5/16 in. at the rounded extremities.

Cut out your paper model and draw two lines across it in positions somewhat similar to those shown in the lower drawing. Now, place your pattern on the wood stock and trace out each half of the boomerang, as in Fig. 3, the portion of the pattern between the two lines being part of both halves. After the outline has been penciled in. take a keyhole saw and cut out the two portions, as shown in Fig. 4. The next step is to cut each end of the boomerang, between the lines, into shape for a half-lap joint, as pictured in Figs. 5 and 6. A miter saw is the tool for this task, but a good hacksaw serves quite well. The joint is then glued and set in a press until dry, after which a single row of small nails are driven into place along the center, as indicated in Fig. 7.

Now, with spokeshave and knife, trim down one side, and one side only, of your boomerang to a convex shape, as shown in Fig. 8. In shaving, only the sharp edge is taken from the wood at the center in order to leave the joint almost full strength, but the remaining part is cut down to a feather line at the edge while retaining the full 5/16-in. thickness at the center line.

Additional nails are then driven into the joint, and aluminum reinforcing strips, cut to shape with tin snips, are nailed to the center and tips of the boomerang on the flat side, as shown in Fig. 9.

The final operation, Fig. 10. consists in giving the whole thing a coat of stain or varnish. A bright color paint should be used instead of stain if you are contemplating throwing in deep grass, in order to make the boomerang more distinguishable where it falls.

And now to the throwing

The average person thinks that the throwing of a boomerang is something which can only be acquired through long and continuous practice, but that idea is entirely erroneous. Throwing the curving stick is an accomplishment which you can make your own far more readily than the pulling of a forty-pound longbow.

The first rule is that the boomerang must always be thrown against the wind. It is against the wind only that the magic stick is self-retrieving.

So, facing the wind, you hold the boomerang in your right hand with the rounded side inward; that is, the round side should be the left side of the boomerang, when held in throwing position by a right-hand thrower. Holding firmly to one end. Bring the stick over your head until you reach the position shown in Fig. 11. Then, bringing the arm forward in a straight overhand swing to the position shown in Fig. 12. release the stick with a short upward jerk of the hand, somewhat like that used in cracking a whip. This is important. Without this sharp jerk, the boomerang gets off to a slow spinning start and will not revolve fast enough to make the return journey; with the snap correctly done, the boomerang will fairly zoom forward, spinning so rapidly that it is apparently transformed into a circular plate of wood of a diameter equal to a straight line joining the two ends.

That's all there is to it. The average beginner learns boomerang throwing somewhat like this: He pitches a few into the ground ; he sails anywhere from two to thirty times with no visible signs of a return journey; and then—success, after which the knack is very seldom lost.

In a successful boomerang flight, the missile will swoop straight forward in a nearly vertical plane for a distance ranging all the way from 100 to 350 ft. As it covers this distance, it changes to an almost horizontal plane, and then, swerving to the left, it soars aloft like. a bird and then comes swooping back in a long volplane, to land at the thrower's feet.

The parabolic flight of the boomerang is a beautiful thing to witness. Although the throw is generally as described, the magic stick can be made to perform a score of other graceful arcs. A slight variation of the snap, a small deflection of the throwing angle, and the boomerang can be made to shoot inward with terrific swiftness, curve outward in a lazy arc, or shoot upward in spinning flight. Almost any object, be it a rabbit hiding behind a stump or a pheasant on the wing, is a fit mark for the flying stick.

After some proficiency has been gained in directing the flight of the boomerang, you can erect a target consisting of a burlap sack filled with straw and aim your stick at this. You will soon acquire sufficient skill to score a hit fully half the time at a distance of from 40 to 60 yd.

And if you do miss, well, back it comes, like a trained eagle wheeling in the breeze!